Listless Eagles fall to Jets

By Ed KraczStaff writer

Friday

Aug 30, 2013 at 12:01 AM

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The average fan may have thought it meaningless, and judging by the empty seats that outnumbered the people at MetLife Stadium on Thursday night, that might have been accurate to them.

Except it wasn’t meaningless to those playing for jobs on both the Eagles and New York Jets during their fourth and final preseason game.

The problem now for Eagles head coach Chip Kelly and general manager Howie Roseman becomes finding anybody worth keeping in the aftermath of a sloppy 27-20 loss.

Playing without many of their starters and key reserves, the Eagles’ second-team offensive line was a sieve, their pass catchers dropped passes and Kelly was visibly irritated.

“I think we played hard, but we made way, way, way too many mistakes,” he said. “Too many dropped balls in the fourth preseason game, very shoddy protection, so . . . ”

The flip side was that the Eagles’ young linebackers — notably Emmanuel Acho, Everette Brown, Jake Knott and Chris McCoy combined for 24 tackles and five sacks. Rookie tackle Bennie Logan added a sack.

“Some of those guys did show — McCoy, Everette Brown, Acho, he seemed like he was around the ball a lot,” Kelly said. “There’s a lot of competition there, and that’s what — when go into this — you’re really hoping guys when they get their opportunity, and these guys did get their opportunity, which ones stepped up and showed what they can do.”

Acho had 11 tackles, seven solos and a sack. He forced a fumble that was recovered by safety Colt Anderson.

“Coaches have been preaching turnovers,” Acho said. “They’re looking for players who can make plays. Tonight I had to come out there and make a play. Making tackles, as a linebacker, that’s what they pay you to do. On top of that, you have to make the plays — sacks, the forced fumbles and that’s what I was trying to do.”

Knott had eight tackles, six of them solo stops. He, too, forced a turnover, which came after the Jets had invaded the red zone.

“I feel like I can get better and learn from this and hopefully it’s here,” Knott said.

Asked how he will spend the next 48 hours, he said: “It’ll be stressful no doubt, but I’ll just try to get my mind off it until it’s set and hopefully be a happy guy.”

Ah, the next 48 hours — less actually. The Eagles must trim 22 players to reach the NFL maximum of 53 by Saturday at 6 p.m.

“We have a lot of film to watch on the bus ride home and then we got a lot of meetings (Friday), and we’ll make a decision what we’re going to do,” Kelly said.

Certainly the linebackers will show up on film.

McCoy had a pair of sacks, as did Brown.

One of the more difficult decisions will come at safety, where Patrick Chung has one of the starting jobs nailed down. He was the only one of the six safeties to sit out. Nate Allen and rookie Earl Wolff started the game, with Kurt Coleman, Anderson and David Sims getting plenty of time, too.

“They got a lot of reps,” Kelly said. “We’ll get a chance to look at the film and make some evaluations. They are the ones we have to make decisions on. We’re going to figure out who it’s going to be. We have to look at the film. I’m not coming off the field and making decisions on who’s going to play what position.”

The Eagles dressed just three cornerbacks, choosing to rest starters Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher.

That made for a long night Brandon Boykin, Jordan Poyer and Trevard Lindley. Even Coleman worked at corner, and played most of the second half there after Lindley left with ankle injury suffered on the first play of the second half.

Tight end James Casey left early after injuring a hamstring.

It didn’t seem to matter to Jets quarterback Matt Simms who played in the secondary. Simms connected on 33 of 44 pass attempts for 285 yards.

Eagles quarterback Nick Foles played the entire first half, but never looked comfortable behind a unit that started Julian Vandervelde at center, Danny Watkins and Allen Barbre at guards, and Michael Bamiro and Matt Tobin at tackles.

Foles finished his two quarters of work just 6-for-17 for 63 yards. He fumbled away the ball once and didn’t lead the team into the end zone.

“I don’t think we protected him very well,” Kelly said. “A lot of times it was just a four-man rush in his face and he didn’t have time to set his feet. We had protection issues with the second O line.”

Asked what those issues were, either communication or just getting physically beat, Kelly said: “I think it’s both. It wasn’t very complicated what the Jets were doing. That’s the part that’s a little disappointing. There shouldn’t be a communication issue. It was very vanilla on both sides.”

Matt Barkley, who played the entire second half, didn’t fare much better. He finished 13-for-27 for 134 yards and one pick.

Running back Matthew Tucker led the Eagles in rushing, gaining 31 yards on eight carries, but was followed closely by Bryce Brown (9-29) and Chris Polk (7-27). Tucker, though, scored a pair of touchdowns and a two point conversions. His 3-yard run tied the game at 13-13 in the third quarter and his 1-yard run with 36 seconds left capped the scoring.

Ed Kracz: 215-345-3069; email: ekracz@calkins.com; Twitter: @kracze

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